Last week, former major league pitcher Curt Schilling said a member of the Boston Red Sox medical staff encouraged him to use performance-enhancing drugs toward the end of his career.

But the Red Sox and Major League Baseball investigated Schilling's claim at the time and found it "completely baseless," two sources with "direct knowledge of the investigations" told ESPNBoston.com.

"It didn't happen," one of the sources told the website. "The staff member did not say it, and he had no PED history whatsoever."

At issue is a claim Schilling made last week on ESPN.com radio: “At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in in which it was brought to my attention that this (using PEDs) is a potential path I might want to pursue." In later interviews, Schilling indicated the suggestion came from a member of the Red Sox medical staff, but he did not name the person.

Sources told ESPNBoston.com the staffer Schilling accused was Mike Reinold, who had just started as Boston's rehabilitation coordinator in spring training 2008, when the accusation occured. The Red Sox cut ties with Reinold after the 2012 season.

Schilling reported the incident to then-manager Terry Francona and then-general manager Theo Epstein, who reported it to MLB, which launched an investigation within a week, one source told the website.

"Schilling didn't stand up enough (to investigators) for what he said happened," one MLB source said. "Our investigation also discovered there was some (bad) history between Schilling and (Reinold).

"Investigators interviewed one witness to the conversation, who said he did not think in any way that [Reinold] said, 'Hey, this is something you should consider.' "

Schilling stands by his story.

"It happened. I informed the club, and there were other players that heard the conversation, who I spoke with after," Schilling told ESPNBoston.com in an email. "The club immediately informed MLB, and they launched an investigation in which all parties were interviewed. If someone's saying it didn't happen, I am not sure why, since the two people in the discussion are gone — I'm retired and the other person was fired last year, I think. But it doesn't shock me that people would deny it was 'an event,' though I am unsure why."